Leaf feeding attachment for tobacco stemming machines



L. H. ZEUN June 14, 1 932.

LEAF FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOR TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINES Filed Aug. 15, 1929 5 Sheets-Sweet 1N VENTOR L. H. ZEUN June 14, 1932.

LEAF FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOR TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINES Filed Aug. 13, 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 nij June 14, 1932. 1.. H. ZEUN 1,863,149

LEAF FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOR TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINES Filed Aug. 15, 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN VENTOR RNEY June 14, 1932. 1.. H. ZEUN 1,863,149

LEAF FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOR TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINES Filed Aug. 13, 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 June 14, 1932. L, ZEUN 1,853,149

LEAF FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOR TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINES Filed Aug. 13, 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented June 14, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE "LOUIS H. ZEUN, OF CATONSVILLE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD T ALBERT W. ADT AND ONE-TZIIRD TO JGHN B. ADT, BOTH OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND LEAF FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOR TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINES Application filed August 13, 1929.

The present invention relates to certain improvements in tobacco stemming or stripping machines, and is especially adaptable to be used with my co-pending application 1 Serial No. 379,204, filed July 18, 1929, and

to that type of machine having stem pulling means, leaf conveying means, stem, engaging means, and stem and leaf stripping means.

The particular object of the present invention is the provision of positive aligning means for the tobacco leaves upon their introduction to the mechanism of the stemming machine.

A further and important object of the pres cut invention is to provide positive tobacco leaf feeding means for the purpose of presenting the tobacco leaves to the mechanism of the stemming machine in a positive manner, particularly for the purpose of prevent- ,ee ing the leaves from moving or sliding out of registered position relative to the mecha: nism of the stemmer, particularly the mechanism forming the initial operation of the stemming machine, thus permitting the stem- :15 'ming machine to function with a maximum percentage of efficiency.

A still further and particular object of the present invention is the provision of means for positive separation of the tobacco leaves,

and preventing the same from grouping and being fed into the stemming mechanism of the machine, more than one leaf at a time.

A still further important object of the present invention is the provision of means for causing the separated tobacco leaves, be-

fore being fed to the initial operation of the stemmer, to be substantially equally spaced.

Another and further object of the invention is the provision of means for increasing 1 the spacing between the tobacco leaves, over and above their original spacing when being initially separated by the leaf feeding mechanism, specifically for the purpose of preventing the possibility of crowding of the leaves at any stage of the various operations of the stemming machine.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide means on the tobacco leaf feed and separator sprockets to prevent the crushing or breaking of the tobacco Serial No. 385,515.

leaf or its stem, thus allowing for a greater efliciency in the operation of the stemming machine, and particularly that portion of the operating mechanism that is dependent on the wholeness of the stem for its e'flicient functioning, such as the stemming operation.

In the functioning of a tobacco stemming machine, it is the practice of the operator in feeding the machine to place a bundle of tobacco leaves on the feed table of the ma chine, then by shifting them about by hand he causes the leaves to become separated from the bundle, simultaneously he attempts to align these leaves to the best of his ability while the same are in motion and moving towards the feed mechanism or initial operating mechanism of the machine, thus it is readily seen that it is literally impossible to cause the leaves to move into the machine in any semblance of alignment and proper spacing b-y depending on the human element for the proper handling of the leaves at this point of the machine.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a positive operating mechanism to take the place of the human element in properly aligning, feeding and spacing the leaves preparatory to their initial introduction to the stemming operation of the stemming machine, thus allowing for increased speed, and maximum efficiency in operation of the machine.

lVith these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain novel features, arrangement and combination of parts as will be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated an automatic aligning, feeding and spacing mechanism for a tobacco stemming machine, embodying the various features of my invention in their preferred form.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a fragmentary portion of a tobacco stemming machine, showing the present invention applied thereto;

Figure 2 is a continuation to the left of (lll the illustration, as shown in Figure 1, disclosing the balance of the feed table structure;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view in plan of the invention as shown in Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a plan View of Figure 2 and is a continuation of Figure 3, disclosing the feed table structure;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary end view of the invention, as shown in Figure 1, and. taken at right angles thereto;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary sectional View on the line 6 6 of Figure 3, illustrating the tobacco leaf feed rollers and space roll;

Figure 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken at right angles to Figure 6, illustrating the space roll structure, together with the position of the feed belt co-operating with the spacer roll for properly spacing the tobacco a nism of the machine; and,

Figure 10 is a fragmentary sectional view, partly diagrammatic, of the feed table and action of the leaf aligning brush member.

Referring to the drawings by numerals,

leaves before enterinothe stemming meoha theinvention as disclosed consists of a tospecific-ally hereinafter described. Mounted. on the frame work 4 with the leaf aligning member 1, is a leaf feed mechanism 5, having a leaf distributor member in the form of a toothed pulley 6, and a tobacco leaf spacer in the form of toothed pulley '7 The frame work4 may be mounted on the stemming machinefeed table portion 8 of the stemming machine 9, as shown in Figure -5. The tobacco leaf aligning, distributor, spacer and feed mechanismare so placed on the feed table of the stemming machine as to co-operate with the initial feed belts 10 of the feed table 8 and the conveyor belts 1 1 of the operat-ive portion of the stemming machine. The belts 10 may be carried on thepulleys14 and 15, and the same receive their operative power through the shaft 16, sprocket 17 sprocket chain 18 and sprocket 19 carried on the shaft 20. This shaft in turn may be powered through the chain of sprocket gearings 21 and 22, which in turn receive their power through the gearing 28 and gearing 23,, as shown particularly in Figure 3-. The shaft of the worm 24, as indicated at- 25, may lead to theoriginal source of power for operating thestemming machine. The conveyor belts 11 carried on the pulleys 26,"are alsooperated through the shaft 20, sprocket gearings 21 ar ld 22, gearing 28 and the worm gearing 2 Referring particularly to Figures 1, 3 and 5, the leaf aligning brush member 1 receives its operative power through the drive pinion 29, carried on the shaft 25, the drive pinion engaging the gear 30, carried on the shaft 31, which in turn carries the bevel gear 32, which drives a similar bevel gear 33, carried 011 the shaft 34, at the end of which is a crank 35, which may be fixed to the shaft by means of the key 36. The end of the crank 37 has pivoted thereto, the extension arm. 38, which may be T-shaped at its opposite end 39, for the purpose of carrying the threaded portion of the brush supporting rod 40. This rod may be fixed in its relation to the T-shaped portion 39 of the extension arm 38,by means of nuts 41 and 42. The threaded portion of the aligning brush supporting rod 40 is for brush in its relation to the tobacco leaf feed belts 10, which adjustment also determines the amount of pressure between the bristles of the brush and the contacting surface of the tobacco leaf. Thus, with this type of adjust-- ment it is possible to obtain the necessary amount of brushing effect on the top surface of the tobacco leaves as they pass within the operative zone of the brush without unnecessarily injuring the fibre of the tobacco leaf or the stem thereof.

As will be seen particularly in Figure 5, the extension arm 38 has pivoted thereto, at

43, a link member 44, which in turn is pivoted at its opposite end 45 to the frame 4. They combined action of the rotation of the crank member 35 and the swinging action of the link member 44, cause the extension arm 38 and the aligning brush 1.to move in a path the purpose of adjusting the height of the as indicated diagrammatically by a dotted line 46, as .shown particularly in Figure 10. The direction of the movement of thebottom line 47 formed by the bristles 3 of the brush member 1,'is indicated by arrows in the above mentioned figure. It will be seen that as the bottom surfaceof the bristles represented by the, line 47 near the upper surface of the tobacco leaf the same has a tendency to give a brushing effect'to the tobacco leaf transversely to the feeding movement thereof and causing the same to move up to and in contact 9 of the leaves are irregular in their relative position with the gauge member 48. As the E leaves move forward, as indicated by the arrows, and come within the active zone of the aligning brush 1, they are moved over and into positive contact with the gauge surface 52, thus placing the stems of the leaves in position for uniform operation of any function of the stemming machine on this part of the tobacco leaf.

In the usual speed of feeding the leaves to the feed table by hand the leaves have a. tendency to become grouped and to overcome this grouping the invention is provided with a toothed pulley 54, which is rotated by the feed belt 55, driven by the pulley 56 carried on the shaft 57, which in turn is rotated by means of the sprocket 58, sprocket chain 59 and sprocket 60, carried on the shaft 61. This shaft 61 is powered through the sprocket and chain member 22. The gearing ratio between the sprocket and the sprocket 58 is approximately one to two, so that the toothed pulley 54 is rotated at a relatively greater speed than the feed belts 10 and the speed of the leaves of tobacco. This excess of speed of the toothed pulley 54, together with the number of teeth in the toothed portion there of, has a tendency to pull the first leaf of a group that presents itself to the teeth of the pulley at the speed at which the group of leaves are moving up to this point so that as each successive leaf of a group of leaves comes in contact with a toothed portion of the pulley 54, they are literally torn away from the leaves of the group to which they may be adhering. This speed action of the toothed pulley causes the leaf to be thrown into the feed wedge portion 65 formed by the lower feed belt 10 and the upper toothed pulley belt 55. The leaves, after passing into the feed wedge 65, are moved into the path of a second toothed pulley 66, having approximately half the number of teeth as the preceding toothed pulley 54, and moving at substantially twice the rate of speed of the preceding toothed pulley. Thus, when the leaves strike this moving toothed pulley with substantially half the number of teeth of the preceding toothed pulley, the speed of the forward movement of the tobacco leaves is stepped up to the exact ratio of the different speeds of the toothed pulleys and the number of teeth carried on same. Thus the tobacco leaves are caused to be properly spaced in a predetermined manner before entering the operative portion or mechanism of the tobacco stemming machine. This predetermined spacing of the leaves prevents crowding of the same at any given point of operation in the stemming machine and tends toward uniform action wit-h possibilities of greater speed because of the more uniform distribution of the operative load on the machine.

The toothed pulley 66 is carried on the shaft 67, and is caused to rotate by means of the belt 68, through the drive pulley 69, which is carried on the shaft 70, which shaft is rotated by means of the sprocket 71, sprocket chain 72 and sprocket 73, carried on. the shaft 61. The drive belt for the toothed pulley 66 is extended over and above the belt 75 by means of the idling pulleys 76 and 77, for the purpose of retaining the spaced tobacco leaves in their predetermined spaced position through its co-action with the feed belt 7 5 and also for the purpose of carrying the leaves up to a point where the lower conveyor belt 78 and the upper conveyor belt 79 may fully take hold of the leaves for the purpose of conveying them through the various stemming operations of the stemming machine.

To ass'st and co-operate with the action of the feed belts 68 and 75, the invention is provided with an auxiliary set of feed pulleys 80 and 81, which are driven by the drive pulley 82 through the drive shaft 70. These pulleys operate the auxiliary feed belt 83, which has a co-action with the lower conveyor belt '11. As will be seen in the plan view of Figure 3, the tobacco leaves, when being fed in a forward direction into the stemming ma chine by the co-action of the two groups of conveyor belts 68, 7 5 and 83 and 7 8, respectively, the tobacco leaves are anchored at two given points of their length, thus preventing any angular, skewing or disalignment of the leaves when being fed forward into the operative portions of the machine.

As will be noted particularly in Figures 7, 8 and 9, which show detailed illustration of the toothed pulley members 54 and 66, the teeth of these members, which come into positive and. direct contact with the tobacco leaves are made up of a. fibrous material 85, such as leather or the like, for the purpose of preventing any injury or breakage to the the tobacco leaves or the stems thereof, due to the functioning of these members. The

fibrous material may be positioned against i the face of the pulley by means of a metallic ring 86, which is held tight against the surface of the fibrous material by means of the screws 87. Referring to Figure 5, the various positions of the aligning brush member 1 have all been shown in fine dotted lines for the purpose of clarity and to prevent the obscuring of the various belts and toothed pulleys directly in the path of the aligning brush member 1.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is:

1. In combination with a tobacco steniming and stripping machine, leaf feeding means, means for positively moving leaves to align their butts, means within the path of said aligning means for the purpose of disintegrating groups of leaves into single leaf units, means in the path of and co-operating with said distintegrating means for the purpose of spacing said single leaf units before being conveyed into the operative por tion of said tobacco stemming andstripping I machine.

2. In combination with a tobacco stemming'and stripping machine, leaf feeding means, an adjustable gauge member co-opcrating with positive leaf aligning means for the purpose of predetermining the position of said leaf in relation to the operative portion of said tobacco stemming and stripping machine, means Within the path of said aligning means for the purpose ofseparating groups of aligned leaves into single leaf units, means in the path of and co-operating With said separating means for the purpose of separating said single leaf units at predetermfned distances one from the other before being conveyed into the operative portion of said tobacco stemming and stripping machine and positive conveying means for conveying said single leaf units into said machine, as and for the purpose ashereinbefore described.

3. In combination with a tobacco stemming and stripping machine, leaf feeding means and an adjustable gauge member co-operating with positive leaf aligning means for the purpose of predetermining the position of said leaf in relation to the operative portion of said tobacco stemming and stripping machine, means within the path of said aligning means for the purpose of separating groups of aligned leaves into single leaf units, means in the path of and co-operating with said separating means for the purpose of preventing the disalignment of said aligned leaf units and means for separating said single leaf units at predetermined distances one from the other befo-rebeing conveyed into the operative portion of said machine, andmeans for positive conveyance of said leaf units into said tobacco stemming and stripping machine.

4. In a leaf conveying machine, leaf feeding means, an adjustable gauge member cooperating with positive leaf aligning means for the purpose of predetermining the position of said leaf in relation to a predetermined point, means Within the path of said aligning means for the purpose of separating groups of; aligned leaves into single leaf units, means in the path of and co-operating with said separating means for the purpose of increasing the spacing between said single leaf units, means for preventing injury to the leaves when being separated into single leaf units, means for preventing injury to the leaves when passing through the operation of increasing the distancesbetween the single leaf units, and means for conveying said leaves to a predetermined position;

5. In a tobacco stemming machine, in combination, a leaf conveying belt, a butt aligning gauge parallel therewith, means to move leaves longitudinally, across said belt and their butts into contact With said gauge comprising a brush, and driving means for moving said brush toward said gauge in contact with the leaves and away from said gauge out of such contact.

6. In a tobacco stemming machine, leaf butt aligning means comprising in combination, an aligning gauge, a brush for moving leaves to a position with their butts contacting said gauge, a lever supporting said brush, a link pivoted at one end to said lever intermediate the ends thereof, a fixed pivot for the remaining endof said link, a crank for driving said lever connected thereto beyond said link pivot from said brush, and means to drive said crank.

his signature.

LOUIS H. ZEUN.

IOU 

